Lafayette student caught with toy gun

[H.R. 6166]

Lafayette student caught with toy gun

Oct 4, 2006 08:59 AM

LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) - Lafayette police have booked at student at LJ Alleman Middle School with terrorizing after bringing a toy gun to school.

Corporal Mark Francis says officers responded to a call at the middle school about a possible gun on the campus. Officers on the scene recovered a toy gun from the backpack of the student.

The student was not identified.

According to Justine Sutley, director of public relations for the Lafayette Parish School System, says officials are on alert after two separate incidents where students brought guns onto campus at Lafayette High School and the W.D. Smith Career Center.

Superintendent of Schools James Easton said even though the gun was a toy, the zero-tolerance policy will be enforced and the principal will recommend expulsion.

http://www.katc.com/Global/story.asp?S=5495176

 

[carlrodd]

here we go. bad judgement on the part of a kid leads to misplaced alarmism by school administration. expelled for a toy gun. i think a hard smack on the back of the head would have been more appropriate.

 

[xd9fan]

ahh the "educatated" logic of zero tolerence. So much for teachers and critical thinking......

 

[Doug.38PR]

Superintendent of Schools James Easton said even though the gun was a toy, the zero-tolerance policy will be enforced and the principal will recommend expulsion.

self-righteous -hole. I recommend public schools be expelled from our society.

In a way, I hope the boy, for his own sake, gets expelled so he can go into home schooling or private school. We would all be healthier if we were all expelled from public schools.

I remember back in the 2cond grade a boy flashed a toy gun (some kind of realistic berretta or submachine gun) to me and a couple of other kids in the class room while he was digging through his pack looking for a book or something. The teacher didn't see it, but it just gave us a couple of grins seeing the "cool" gun in the bag. Nobody thought anything of it. Knowing the teacher, at the most she would have taken the toy gun away from him and given it back at the end of the day telling him not to bring it back to school not because it looked like a gun, but because toys were didn't belong in the classroom. At best she would have told him not to take it out of the bag and to take it home with him and leave it.

 

[azredhawk44]

I have been zealously advocating the elimination of Gun Free Zones over at TFL for the last few days.

That being said, I agree with the zero tolerance policy for students with weapons. Kids, leave the guns at home and the fake guns too. You'll get shot by the school resource officer for either being a real threat or being stupid, one of the two.

donning my flame-retardant underwear now.

 

[TJTay89]

No doubt the kid showed one of his friends who then told on him. When I went to school, I use to accidentally bring "no-nos" all the time (usually on Monday, since I used my back-pack for other things during the weekend and forgot to clean out the bag properly). When I noticed I had it in my bag, I would promptly zip the bag back up, and not open it up again until I was home. Never seemed to hurt anyone.

That is assuming the kid brought it on accident. If he brought it on purpose and was showing it off, then he truly doesn't understand the seriousness of bringing something like that to school. Especially in light of all the recent school tragedies. Still kicking him out of school isn't going to do any good. No child left behind... Unless you bring a toy to school, and then you don't deserve an education.

 

[El Tejon]

This is Lafayette, LA, not GA, IN or CO.

Please amend your title, it confused me.

 

[Doug.38PR]

It's Lafayette Louisiana, see the beginning of hte article

 

[carpettbaggerr]

booked at student at LJ Alleman Middle School with terrorizing

Is it "terrorizing" just to have the toy?

Or did he pretend it was real and threaten someone with it? Story doesn't say, but that would make more sense for criminal charges.

 

[Lucky]

azredhawk, don't you think that it's kind of messed up to draw down on kids with toys? Toys that are designed to be pointed at other kids? I don't know what to think, I guess you have a point, but it's just that I wasn't a kid very long ago, and we ran around in the street shooting cap guns at each other, and on the playground during recess.

Maybe times have changed, and children can't be allowed to play with guns any more? But that seems like we're punishing the masses for the crimes of the few, and that's a Stalinist tactic of collective punishment, where a free county punishes the guilt and not the innocent.

So if the answer isn't to ban children from playing with toy guns, the only other option must be to:?

-maybe teach kids not to point realistic guns at people who aren't playing with them?
-teach adults to hesitate when a child points a gun at them?


What about toy knives and toy bows and arrows? Do we not regulate these, and if so why not? Why can't the same reasoning be applied to the toy guns?

 

[slicknickns]

In third grade i accidentl discovered i had a cheap pocket knife in my backpack. At recess, i went out alone and threw it in a dumbster. In 9th grade on the bus, i found a little lock back knife about 2 inches long, put it at bottom of my backpack and didn't tell anyone.

Those were my only experiences. But you'd be surprised how often at a school kids will carry knives. Last week, in my business class in high school, a gun nut, who's also a redneck, smokes tons of cigarettes and wants to join the marines, pulled out a smith & wesson lock back knife that had to be a good 4 inches in blade length. The dumbass even opened it and locked it, with the click sound. He did this under the desk so no one saw, but my eyes were as big as basketballs. I didn't tell anyone, knowing that the kid is not going to harm anyone with it. I've also seen tons and tons of kids carry swissarmy knives on keychains. some with Leathermans even.

It also seems big in my area to put the clip on the side of your pocket, so if too show everyone you have a knife, no one does it at school but as soon as i go down to the beach, there's a ton of kids i see doing it.

Actually a freshman i know, who's more annoying then better to know, pulled a knife on some kid who owned him a pack of cigarettes. he got the pack of grits, but now everyone makes fun of him for pulling a knife and thinks he's a.) crazy or b.) a pussy who should have just punched the other kid.

So it goes both ways. It's kinda odd, but for a highschool in orange county, where i go if a teacher found out you had a swissarmy knife on your keychain or a swissarmy knive with screwdriver, cork, etc. I serious doubt they would do anything. All they care about where i go is if you have drugs on you.

But when it comes to self defense I feel content with my fists, my body, and a nice finepoint pen.

 

[Fn-P9]

Schools that institute a "zero tolorance" of anything goes against the whole principle of schools IMHO. How is anyone going to learn from ones mistakes if they arent given a chance to learn from ones mistakes. "Send him to jail and throw away the keys" the liberals say. lol

My 2nd thought is that education just seems to be the problem. A child or a person that brings a toy gun into school obviously has no idea what a real gun means. It would be simpler if back in the day when you could bring a gun to school but leave it in your car. But it sounds like this kid has a fasination with guns that PROBABLY isnt a bad fasination and might need to be taken to the range, and taught exactly what a gun is and the responsibilies that go along with it.

 

[Autolycus]

Sounds like common sense was not this kids strongpoint.

Unfortunatly it seems that people forgot only 20+ years ago people were bringing their .22s to school and other WMDs. At least according to some of the older posters.

I had a friend who wore a Band tshirt and got suspended. IT had a cartoon drawing of a kid with a squirt-gun and the name of the band which was squirtgun on it. He got suspended due to the word gun being on his shirt.

This incident happened in my hometown a few years back...

http://forums.1911forum.com/showthread.php?t=128152&highlight=Orland


I am ashamed of my former school. (I used to post on 1911 forum as Gatman).

 

[Christianninja]

On more then one occasion, my father has reminded me how his father would hunt squirrels on the way to school, then just lay his .410 on the table in the back of the classroom.

Imagine the horror! A student with a single shot .410 assualt shotgun, capable of firing multiple pellets with one trigger pull!

 

[Lucky]

Exactly, the way things are isn't the way it's always been. And it's not necessarily better than before.

History PROVES that people have been responsible with firearms for a long time, but now everyoen is punished for the possible crimes of a few.

 

[TexasRifleman]

Unfortunatly it seems that people forgot only 20+ years ago people were bringing their .22s to school and other WMDs. At least according to some of the older posters.

Hey, I resemble that remark, and I'm not OLD

But yes, even as recently as 1984 I was taking a deer rifle to school and storing it in the principals office during the day so it wouldn't get stolen from my truck.

I'd hit the deer stand every morning before class and nearly always get to school before the bell rang.

Running up the front steps with a 30-30 Win and no one ever thought anything of it........

 

[Robert Hairless]

Zero tolerance policies are actually great fun for folks with a decent sense of humor.

I wonder, for example, whether the principal of that school is actively engaged in promoting gun violence by allowing students and faculty to carry these symbols of it into the school or whether he has everyone who enters the school searched for them:

If not, there's no "zero tolerance policy" in that school, only arbitrary determinations by a principal and, possibly, a school district.

Ted Kennedy is a lot of fun too. As someone firmly opposed to firearms in the hands of individuals he really needs to get that musket out of the hand of that minuteman pronto. The statue misrepresents his state's position too.

What fun--for everyone except the schoolkids and others whose lives are affected by such stupid, hypocritical behaviors. But they're apparently irrelevant to the larger issues involved in protecting our kids.

 

[salvador31c]

Superintendent of Schools James Easton said even though the gun was a toy, the zero-tolerance policy will be enforced and the principal will recommend expulsion.

Not Very Resonable Actions on part of principal i think thats too harsh

Hell i carried a pocket knife since about the 7th grade and i never got caught through H.S. because i've never waved it about in class I just liked to carry it, yes i knew it was a weapon free zone but hell it supoosed to be drug free to but that wasnt the Fact of the matter.